In W02011/028605 there is shown a rope descender in which an eccentrically moveable cam has jamming surfaces co-operable to jam a rope against a convex fixed part of the descender, the cam itself being directly fixed to a handle in the form of a torque arm of length sufficient to overcome the reaction forces being applied to the rope when under load, whereby the rate of descent can be manually controlled by the person connected to the descender. Although simple to operate it will, however, be appreciated that for relatively heavy loads the rotation of the torque arm may be difficult unless the arm itself is sufficiently long enough to act as a lever for moving the jamming surface of the cam away from the rope.
Another rope descender the subject of EU'Design Registration No. 002334458-0001 dated 28 Oct. 2013 and sold as the Anthron Double Stop Descender DSD30+25 again includes a relatively long handle and its operation is described on the website www.anthron.sias having a second anti-panic jamming position when pressure on the handle is high enough such that the descent will be stopped entirely. However, it will be understood that this requires the corresponding strength of the user of the device in order for it to fulfill its stated function.